


More Like Family

by Reading_Only



Series: More Like Family [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith, Keith never left the Garrison, Lance just wants a break, M/M, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-02-12 22:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12970209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reading_Only/pseuds/Reading_Only
Summary: There they were. The dream team of the Garrison. Considered to be the best after the apparent failure of the Kerberos mission. Pidge Gunderson, a master technician who was top in grades and IQ. Hunk Garett, the best Engineer and kind to boot. And Keith Kogane, the best pilot the Garrison had ever produced. (Next to Takashi Shirogane of course)And Lance hated the lot of them.





	1. Restart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Basically playing around with the AU that Keith never left the Garrison.

There they were. The dream team of the Garrison. Considered to be the best after the apparent failure of the Kerberos mission. Pidge Gunderson, a master technician who was top in grades and IQ. Hunk Garett, the best Engineer and kind to boot. And Keith Kogane, the best pilot the Garrison had ever produced. (Next to Takashi Shirogane of course)

And Lance hated the lot of them.

Being a cargo pilot wasn't his goal. If it weren't for the stupid way the damn school worked, he should've been a fighter pilot too. But no, here he was, wasting away his days doing something that he absolutely loathed. Fucking Keith and his inability to not be a show off. This was why he was in this fucking situation. It could be worse, he supposed, at least he could get a job that can get his mother some money to help provide for their family.

Lance's midnight walk was never the highlight of his day. It was usually him, alone, brooding at his misfortune. It didn't matter; No one had caught him yet. He froze as the hiss of a door caught his attention. He thought it may have been the teachers, but no, it was only the bane of his existence sneaking out with Hunk and what appeared to be Pidge.

He could just turn around and ignore it.

Or he could follow them and watch them inevitably break a rule and get them in trouble.

Unfortunately his mind sided with the latter as he rushed to follow them outside.

Lance watched them as they sat on the roof and seemed to be going over a plan of some sort.  
"What do you think you're doing?" Lance asked loud and clear hoping to at least scare them a little. Luckily it had it's intended effect. Pidge had jumped and Hunk had yelled and begun apologizing. Keith had whipped around and seemed extremely surprised at his presence.

Keith was obviously off put at Lance's presence, but it wasn't exactly unwelcome. Keith gulped and suddenly his jacket was way too hot.

Lance was still waiting for his answer. Of course part of him was genuinely curious while the other part really just wanted to know what to say to the teacher he ratted them out to later.  
Keith began to sweat and in an attempt to not sound as eager as he was, he said "Lance, right? You're the cargo pilot?"

Earlier if Lance's expression had been cautious if not slightly apprehensive, now it was downright aggressive and actually murderous. His eyes narrowed and he stalked closer to the trio.  
"What's it to you, Kogane?" He hissed out.

Ouch. That stung.

 _Shouldn't have mentioned Cargo Pilot. Now I know._ Keith thought, wincing at how poisonously Lance had spat out his last name.  
Pidge snickered at the awkward situation between Keith and his longtime crush.  
Hunk interrupted the tension by attempting to introduce himself to Lance.

"Uh, hi, I'm Hunk. Hunk Garett. I'm an engineer. And that's Pidge." He said.

"Hi." Pidge said, not moving their eyes from the computer screen.

"Hi." Lance answered back just as curtly, making his distaste for the trio blatantly obvious. Lance turned to Hunk. "Since mullet head won't answer me, what are you doing here?"

"Well you see, uhhh-" Hunk began, avoiding looking at Lance in the eyes.

Hunk never finished his sentence, considering the Garrison announced a sudden lockdown and what appeared to be an asteroid began to plummet towards the ground.

"What's going on?!" Lance yelled. Keith ran to Pidge.

"How long do we have?"

"A couple minutes. Get ready Keith."

Lance watched as an explosion suddenly went off in the Far East of the research facility.

"Uhhhh.." Lance stood open mouthed at the occurrence.

"Come on Lance!" Pidge grabbed his wrist and pulled him down with the group downhill towards the research facility.

Keith ran in and began taking down scientists left and right, clearing the way for the group that Lance had somehow joined along the way. The large door suddenly hissed open and Keith began to knockout the scientists in the room easily.

"Is that Mr. Preston? Dude I think you just hit Mr. Preston." Hunk said, alarmed.

"Who cares? He said my reasoning for the multiverse theory was wrong. Fuck Mr. Preston." Pidge said, urging Hunk to move faster while simultaneously dragging Lance along.

"Shiro." Keith identified the figure on the table and began to quickly destroy his straps.

"I-Is that Takashi Shirogane? He went missing on the Kerberos mission last year didn't he?" Lance asked.

"The Garrison lies, okay?" Pidge said sourly. Keith lifted Shiro up by one side and Hunk took the other.

"We need to get out of here. Hunk, Pidge, I need you both to load Shiro on the bike. Lance stick with me."

"Yeah, sure, We’ll just leave you two alone then…" Pidge snarked.

"Shut up Pidge." Keith hissed

"Woah woah woah! I'm not going with anyone! These are faculty members. I'm sure we can reason with them-" Lance was cut off by a plasma blast narrowly missing his shoulder.  
"Still think we can reason with them?" Keith asked smugly. Lance muttered a curse and ran to follow the group.

Lance settled into the chair, gripping hard onto the seat, as he refused to touch Keith in any way shape or form. The kickoff was almost hard enough to make him fall, but he dug his heels into the bike that sat beneath him. Keith had begun to do wild evasive maneuvers that nearly knocked Lance off. Lance muttered as he gripped the side.

Pidge rolled their eyes at Keith who was obviously showing off to impress his crush. Really, it was a life or death situation and his priority was impressing Lance? Not that it seemed to be working; Lance looked about ready to throw himself off. They snickered as they adjusted Shiro to make sure he didn't fall off of the bike.

“Uh, Kogane, I don’t mean to alarm you but there is a cliff rapidly approaching.” Lance said, alarmed. Keith glanced back at the two bikes that were still trailing him.

“Yep!” Keith smirked and began to accelerate. Lance grit his teeth at the wild maneuvers and held harder to the bike.

There was this feeling of euphoria from going so fast, yet at the same time it was absolutely fucking terrifying. Suddenly lance felt weight on his back and found that Pidge was having trouble holding on to Shiro. Lance dug his heels into the sides and helped Pidge adjust her grip only to find that they were already half way off the cliff. In a moment of desperation, Lance reached out and grabbed onto the first thing he could and shut his eyes as he felt the bike plummet.

When Lance had finally opened his eyes, he found that they were still alive (which was always good no matter the circumstances), but he had found that the solid thing that he had latched onto had been Keith’s back. Lance recoiled and held onto the seats again as he heard the gremlin behind him snickering.

Once they had finally stopped by a shack in the middle of nowhere, Keith and Hunk pushed inside and laid Shiro down on the couch. Lance eyed the decrepit shack that he was sitting in. The walls had something that looked like a conspiracy theory board with yarn connecting pictures and graphs. It was disconcerting to say the least. Shiro had woken up a few minutes ago and Keith had followed after him to comfort him.

When they returned, Shiro seemed to be in a better mood than before. The previously missing pilot seemed taken back by the board.

“What have you been doing while I was away?” Shiro asked incredulously as he eyed the maps. Keith shrugged.

“I never gave up searching for you, I guess. The Garrison chalked your disappearance up to bad piloting, but…”

“But..?”

“I know you, Shiro. You’re one of the best pilots the Garrison has ever seen! There was no way you could fail like that! I stayed at the Garrison to try and break into their files; that’s where I met Pidge.” Keith nodded towards the smallest person in the room.

As Shiro looked over to them, his eyes flashed in recognition before he smiled and held his hand out. Pidge smiled back and shook the hand in what seemed to be relief? Shiro looked over to Hunk then back to Keith expectedly.

“As luck would have it, I was assigned with Pidge at the Garrison, but of course, we needed an engineer. That’s where Hunk came in. He’s brilliant really! In fact with their help that’s how we were able to know that you would be arriving tonight.”

Shiro offered a handshake to Hunk which he shook exuberantly. And lastly, Shiro looked to Lance.

“Uh, well, Lance is-“

“He’s Keith’s cr-“

“Shut up Pidge!”

“Keith don’t be rude!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Yeah, Keith don’t be rude!”

“Augh!”

Shiro chuckled at their antics and then looked to Lance for his own explanation. Lance eyed him warily for a moment before sighing.

“My name is Lance McClain. I’m a cargo pilot from the Garrison. I don’t really know what’s going on here. Sir.” Lance added after a moment of silence. Shiro seemed to sense the teen’s wariness and smiled as reassuringly as possible.

“That’s alright, I don’t really know much of what’s going on myself. And please, just call me Shiro.” He said. Lance paused before nodding tentatively and shaking Shiro’s outstretched hand.

Eventually Keith, Pidge, and Hunk pulled Shiro into their conspiracy about Voltron, pulling Lance along for the ride.


	2. The Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group found the Blue Lion

“Hunk was able to make a Fraunhofer line from the coordinates that Pidge got from listening to alien radio chatter with their own tech.” Keith explained. “Eventually we found this cave filled with carvings, Shiro.”

“Impressive. You’ve got quite the team there, Keith.”

“Yeah, they’re… pretty great.” Keith smiled. Lance scoffed under his breath from his corner of the room. Pidge rushed to their backpack and pulled out headphones, a satellite and some sort of detector.

“Recently the readings have been off the charts, especially since you’re pod thing came around.” Pidge explained. “We haven’t been to the cave since the first time, but I think that now would be a good time to check it out again.”

“You think something changed?” Hunk asked.

“Maybe? We should still check it out though.” Pidge said, shoving tech into their bag. Keith nodded in agreement. While the others added in their affirmations, Lance continued to observe them quietly.

“W-what do you think Lance?” Keith asked. “You wanna come with us?” He swallowed audibly while waiting for Lance’s response. Eventually Lance sighed.

“I don’t have much of a choice anyway.” Lance muttered. “We’re probably wanted criminals in the eyes of the government.” Keith chuckled sheepishly. The others began to file out of the shack in preparation for their long trek to the cave. Lance zipped up his hoodie and followed the group, shutting the door to the shack.

Eventually they had been led to a dark tunnel. Or cave. It was really unclear. Lance squinted at the drawings on the wall indicating a giant lion.

"These have got to be thousands of years old." Hunk said, moving his hands across some of the drawings. Lance continued on with them, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He felt a weird rumbling at the back of his head and tried to shrug it off. The uncontrollable urge to touch the drawing nagged at him the deeper he walked into the cave. Pidge settled beside him as they placed their palm on a carving and held the satellite close by in an attempt to get new readings. Eventually Lance discretely rubbed his index finger on one of the Lion Head drawings that adorned the wall.

Suddenly the cave lit up in a blue glow. The lion carvings lit up like magic and the floor opened beneath them. Lance yelped as the sensation of falling overcame his senses. A waterfall pushed them out into an underground lake, though that wasn't the main attraction. The thing that grabbed their attention had been the giant blue metal lioness that stared down upon them.

Lance suddenly felt put on the spot, as if the lion’s eyes felt like they were watching his every move.

“Great, now how’re we gonna get back up there?” Hunk muttered beside him.

"Is this voltron?" Pidge asked. Lance started to squirm, feeling uneasy as the lion stared down at him. Keith walked up to the blue barrier and rapped at it with his knuckles.

"How do we open this barrier?" Keith asked. Lance strode closer and placed a hand on one of the hexagons making up the force field.

"Open sesame!" He said sarcastically, only to jump back when the barrier actually came tumbling down. Suddenly images flashed before his eyes. 5 mechanical lions all in different colors, transforming into a human-esque figure. A warrior it seemed. Lance blinked furiously and realized he was back in the cave.

“Voltron is a robot. Voltron is a huge, huge, awesome robot!” Hunk exclaimed. Their chatter began to muffle as Lance maintained eye contact with the lioness. He recognized shouts of surprise and alarm as the lion bent down and welcomed them. The group hesitantly entered the lion to find a room with a chair.

“We are in a futuristic alien cat head right now.” Hunk stage whispered. As the group poked around Lance felt a weird rumble at the back of his head, but he pushed it away and attempted to remain still. After a few minutes of marveling at the strange technology, they found that the lion was no longer responding. _It was so active earlier…_ Pidge thought.

“I’m going to address the elephant in the room right now- Who is going to try and sit in the chair?” Hunk asked. They all looked to each other, unsure of how to respond. “You know, it was just a suggestion, you don’t have to- it could be a trap, or something.”

“No, I think you’re onto something, Hunk. I want to see how the lion will react to certain stimuli.” Pidge said, in hopes of getting the robot to move.

“I’ll try it.” Shiro volunteered, moving around the chair to sit. After a few moments of waiting, the lion didn’t respond. Shiro shifted in the seat, trying to shake off how completely wrong it felt to sit there. “Huh. It feels like a regular old chair.” He said, getting up. Pidge nodded, deep in thought. They looked around the room before their eyes landed on Lance.

“Lance, out of curiosity, I need to ask you to sit in the chair.” Pidge said sternly. Lance sputtered in indignation.

“What? Why should I?” he asked _. I’m just a cargo pilot, nothing special._ He thought.

“Well, back in the cave, those carvings didn’t do that before. They only did that when you came around.”

“Yes, but you, yourself stated that you had only been in that cave once before.” Lance said a little smugly.

“Well for one, you soggy cereal, everyone was touching a carving except for you, and _coincidentally_ once you touched one, they started acting like freshly cracked glow sticks!” Pidge growled. _This little bugger is fucking persistent._ Lance thought.

“How do you know it wasn’t reacting to Shiro?” Lance asked. “It may have been my first time coming here, but it was Shiro’s too!”

“He sat in the chair Lance, nothing happened.”

“Keith then-“

“Lance please? Pretty please? The lion will react to you I’m sure of it!” Pidge said, looking up at him with so much hope, Lance knew he couldn’t say no again. Not when they looked so much like his little sister when she would hand him poorly made flower crowns expecting him to wear them. Lance felt a pang of guilt in his chest for arguing with Pidge.

“Okay.” Lance said without thinking. Pidge grinned triumphantly and moved out of his way to give him space. Lance sat down hesitantly. A few seconds passed. “Nothing’s happ- WOAH!” The chair moved of its own accord pushing him forward. A dashboard appeared in front of him and various panels came up. The others made sounds of wonder while Lance paused.

That rumbling in the back of his head no longer felt like a faraway mumble. Now it came to the forefront of his mind, loud and clear. It sounded like a mix of purrs and roars but he knew what they meant.

“It’s a cockpit.” Keith breathed out. “This tech is… so much more advanced than the Garrison’s…”

“I know how to get out of here.” Lance said. He reached out and gripped onto the two handles in front of him. “Hold on to something okay? I get the feeling this isn’t going to be the smoothest flight.” Lance breathed out slowly and pushed on the levers. Lance felt himself get pushed against the chair as the lion zoomed out of the cavern.

“Okay, just to make this clear, I have no control over what is happening right now!” Lance yelled, gripping onto the handles tightly. The lion lurched forward and flew up into space.

“Is that an alien warship?” Hunk asked.

“They found me.” Shiro breathed out. The fear in his voice was almost tangible, making Lance grit his teeth. The lion roared in his head, causing Lance to smirk. _Glad to know we feel the same way_ he thought.

“She’s telling me to stop the ship.” Lance informed them. “We probably won’t have much of a choice in this anyway.” He said attempting not to sound eager for the destruction of Shiro’s tormentors. Lance smirked and had the lioness scratch through the side of the ship.

“Now all that’s left is to lose them.” Pidge said.

“Okay,” Lance replied and shifted the levers to a higher gear. Suddenly a wormhole appeared in front of the lion. Lance gulped and looked to Shiro for his decision. When Shiro decided that they listen to the lion, Lance felt her purr in delight.

As they found themselves on an earth-like planet, Lance felt the lion get pulled towards the large white castle. The group filed out of the Lion after realizing that the air was breathable. The lion flew off the moment Lance stepped out of her. As he watched her fly off, he wondered about how he was going to return home. Surely his family would be worried about him… If the Garrison would even tell them that he was missing. Lance recalled what Pidge had said a few hours ago.

_“The Garrison lies okay?” Pidge said sourly._

Before he knew it, his feet had carried him into the castle.


	3. The Princess

Lance hung in the back of the group, his hands balled into his hoodie’s pockets. The castle seemed to be larger than it did when he was in the lion. The sleek white walls were of course very artistic, but it reminded him of the hospital, something he never grew to enjoy. The halls weren’t as cold as the hospitals that he was so familiar with, giving him some form of comfort.

The castle itself seemed to guide them as they followed it’s lights into what appeared to be an observation deck. As Pidge poked around the control panel that had a foreign language, Lance attempted to distance himself from the group and edged further towards the windows. Suddenly, two pods rose up out of the floor.

 “Are these guys… dead?” Hunk asked.

“I hope not.” Pidge muttered. One of the pods seemed to dissolve into thin air as an almost ethereal woman fell out.

“Father!” Lance moved quickly and managed to catch her. She seemed disoriented as she gripped onto Lance’s jacket. He looked to Shiro in desperation, and the older man nodded. Lance shrugged the woman off into Shiro’s arms and scooted himself back into the group next to Keith. (He didn’t notice Keith visibly relax when Lance passed the woman off to Shiro).

“Ma’am are you alright?” Shiro asked, holding her forearms to help her gain her bearings.

“Who are you? Where am I?” She gasped out, pushing Shiro away. Shiro held his hands out as if he were calming down a wild animal.

“Calm down. My name is Takashi Shirogane and this is my crew.” Lance raised his eyebrow at being referred to as Shiro’s crew member. “We were brought here by a giant blue lion, if you don’t mind we have a few questions ourselves.”

“A blue lion? But her paladin- Oh no, How long have I been in there?” Allura gasped.

“We don't know what you're talking about. Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help.” Shiro said softly.

 “I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. I've got to find out where we are and how long we've been asleep.” She said and rushed to the control panel Hunk was situated behind. Pidge watched with interest as she tapped away. A familiar hiss caught Lance’s attention as a man woke up from the second pod.

“Enemy combatants!” The man jumped out of the pod, only to barely land. “Quiznak! You're lucky I have a case of the old ‘sleep chamber knees.’” Lance narrowed his eyes at the man’s antics, but felt a small smile creep onto his face nevertheless. It _was_ rather amusing.

“It can’t be…” Allura stared at the panel in disbelief. Pidge wasn’t sure what the control panel did say, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.

“Princess, what is it?” The man asked.

“We’ve been asleep for 10,000 years… Planet Altea and all of the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Coran, Father is gone. Our entire civilization...” Allura seemed to be close to crying until her eyes hardened. “Zarkon.”

“Zarkon?” Keith muttered. Shiro seemed horrified to hear the name and only returned to focus when Hunk placed a hand on his shoulder.

“The once-leader of an evil race that aims to do nothing but conquer and destroy.” Allura hissed out. Lance wrinkled his nose at the description, thinking it a bit prejudiced.

“No, Princess. Zarkon was the one who kept me prisoner. He still leads them.” Shiro said softly.

“That’s impossible! It’s been 10,000 years!” Allura exclaimed. Shiro shook his head and Allura seemed shocked to her very core by the revelation.

Lance glanced over to everyone else. Pidge seemed to be trying to decipher the language on the panel while Hunk seemed a little queasy. Keith seemed to have a poker face on as usual, causing Lance to scowl just a bit. Keith’s poker face had made it difficult for him to ever know what he was thinking, even at the Garrison. It seemed if he wasn’t wearing a poker face, he was wearing an angry look.

By the time his attention had returned to Allura she was playing with what appeared to be small mice. (Though they had very different colors than what he was accustomed to.)

An alarm rang through the room and red lights blared as a Galra ship showed up on the holograms. Coran ran to the panels in alarm.

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Coran said

“How did they find us?” Allura asked. The room was silent as question hung heavily in the air.

“Lance do you maybe think the lion was being tracked?” Keith asked, not unkindly. Lance narrowed his eyes.

“What are you implying here, Mullet?” Lance bit out. Keith seemed slightly annoyed as he raised his hands in defense.

“Nothing. I just-“ Keith sighed. “I really don’t want to think that she was being tracked okay? But I didn’t want to rule out the possibility.” Lance’s eyes softened.

“Look, she didn’t feel tracked okay?” Lance muttered. Keith seemed as if he wanted elaboration. “I don’t know how to explain it.” He squirmed a bit.

“It’s not really meant to be explained” Allura cut in helpfully. “The pilots of the lions can feel certain emotions and sensations through their lions, given that their bond is strong enough.” Lance relaxed at the explanation while Keith’s expression soured just a bit.

“Keith is jealous~” Pidge sang out before breaking out into snickers. Hunk seemed close to joining them. Keith huffed and threatened them while Shiro began to giggle to himself, covering them with a cough when Keith glared in his direction. Lance raised his eyebrow at them, thoroughly confused.

“How long before they arrive, Princess?” Shiro said, successfully changing the subject from Keith’s pining. Allura looked to Coran.

“A couple of days, at their speed.” Coran said, holding out his fingers to count.

“Let them come! By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon's empire!” Allura declared. Lance wanted to nod in agreement, but he felt compelled to ask;

“What do you mean Princess?” Lance asked. Allura smiled confidently.

“You each will pilot a Lion of Voltron.” She stated as she strode to the raised stage in the middle of the room. The room dimmed and what seemed to be stars drifted amongst them.

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura's life force. She alone is the key to the lions' whereabouts” Coran explained as Pidge squinted at the lion holograms drifted past them.

 “These are coordinates. The Black Lion looks like it's in the same location as the Blue Lion.” Pidge stated.

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!” Coran said. Allura smiled coyly.

 “Very observant. That's because the Black Lion is in the castle.” Allura said.

 “To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon's hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle. It can only be freed if the other four lions are present.” Coran elaborated.

“Sounds like a sidequest.” Pidge muttered.

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation.” The holographic Lion drifted over to Shiro. “That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.” Shiro nodded, seemingly ready for the challenge.

The hologram of the Green Lion floated over to Pidge. “The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.” Pidge seemed delighted at their position.

“The Blue Lion is a caretaker- she tends to choose a pilot based on their potential. Lance, the Blue Lion has already chosen you.” Allura said.

“There’s nothing special about me, though.” Lance murmured softly. Keith seemed to hear as his head whipped around to stare at Lance in disbelief.

“The Yellow Lion is caring and kind. Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.” Allura swiped with her right hand and the hologram drifted over to Hunk who grunted questioningly.

“The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable. Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.” Keith nodded appreciatively but glanced over at Lance in concern. Lance looked up at the hologram of the Blue Lion, deep in thought. Suddenly the hologram roared and flew to the center of the room to combine with the other lions, forming the same defender they had seen when they found the Blue Lion.

“Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe!” Allura shouted with exuberance. Lance looked away from the Defender nervously. He could already feel pressure building up in his chest.

 

 


	4. Not Bad, Not Easy

As Allura began to pair them off to find lions, Lance found himself observing their small rag tag group to try and relax. Pidge seemed to be the most calm of them all. They were probably very excited about all this advanced tech that was just lying around. Hunk was downright terrified of the prospect of fighting an intergalactic war. He seemed to be the kindest, so the mere thought probably made him queasy. Shiro was more difficult to read. He looked determined- he looked so ready to throw himself into the Princess’ cause, but there was always a small hint that Lance would notice. 

Everything about him screamed an emotion that Lance couldn’t recognize yet, but it was always pushed away by Shiro’s leadership qualities. (Literally almost everything he’s said so far has sounded like a declaration written by the president or something)  
And Keith…

“Unfortunately I can’t yet pinpoint the location of the Red Lion for some reason. So I suppose Keith will stay here, while the four of you go find the Yellow and Green Lions.” Allura said, scrunching up her nose at the thought of the situation.

“Luckily, we have time.” Coran smiled. “The closest Galran fleet will probably be here in a few days. So we have time to prepare.” He held up a few of his fingers as if showing his work.Keith stood against the wall (or glass) with his arms crossed. He seemed upset but… it felt less angry and more vacant, like he was thinking about something.

“Hi, I’m Hunk.” Lance was interrupted from his observations by the taller boy. Hunk had his hand extended with a smile that could only be described as sunshine-y. If that was even a word.

“I- We already did this earlier…” Lance began awkwardly. He didn’t want to seem rude to one of the more tolerable members of Keith’s group. Eventually after a couple seconds hesitation, he placed his hand in Hunk’s. “I’m Lance…”

“I know, I just thought our introduction was cut a little short by the spaceship though. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you! I mean I saw you around the Garrison, but we never actually talked, which is a little bit of a shame since you seem like a good person…” Hunk rambled on, dominating the conversation on their way to the Blue Lion and Lance didn’t even mind. 

Hunk continued to ramble as they entered the Lion, but he grew silent as Lance prepared the lion for takeoff. Lance would glance back every once in a while wondering why the young man seemed to be bracing for something. As he gripped the wheels he felt the already familiar presence of the lion in the back of his head. Once they managed to reach space again, Hunk seemed to relax immensely.

“Man you pilot way calmer than Keith does! I was worried there for a second.” Hunk laughed in relief. Lance’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

“What do you mean? Isn’t Keith the best pilot the Garrison’s ever seen?” Lance recited Iverson’s words with malice as he recalled them from his lecture when he insisted on getting into fighter class. Hunk filed away Lance’s description of Keith away for further examination later.

“Well, yeah. He is the best _fighter_ pilot. So he usually makes the worst turns and spins and- oh god, I feel sick just thinking about it. ” Hunk said sheepishly. “Your piloting is calmer. Less… wild, I guess?” Lance paused. 

“Wait, you’re motion sick?” Hunk nodded in response. “Well, must have been hell for you when mullet became your pilot.”

“Mullet- You mean Keith?” Lance shrugged. As many questions as he could ask (Why Mullet?), Hunk could already tell that Keith was going to flip over what he had decided on. “So, uh- what do you think about Keith?”

“Cocky. He’s annoying.” Lance grit out as Hunk winced internally. _Ouch. Keith has his work cut out for him._ “Hold onto something. The princess just opened the wormhole, there’s no way of telling if this’ll be a smooth trip.”

“Oh no.” Hunk groaned, his sympathy for Keith momentarily forgotten in favor of anxiety at the impending motion.

“Hey, it’ll be fine, big guy. I’ll take it as slow as possible.” Lance said. He had seen the anxiety on Hunk’s face. “Wouldn’t want you getting dizzy now would we?” He said in a lightly sarcastic tone.

Hunk sighed. “Thank you, Lance.”

“Whatever. But you do realize you’re gonna be piloting a lion too? You can’t take it slow forever, at least not with those Galra.” Lance said bluntly.

 _I mean sure maybe he phrased it harshly, but he’s right._ Hunk thought. He glanced through the side of the windshield. _And he is going slow right now to keep me from getting sick! He’s got a sharp tongue… but he’s nice. God damn it, Keith, what did you do to make him so upset with you?_

“Speaking of Galra…” Lance narrowed his eyes. “Hunk this is going to get violent!” he shouted before speeding up to dodge a blast. 

“Do you think they know about the Yellow Lion?” Hunk whined. “Oh god, I knew this was a bad idea from the start! I thought Coran said this planet was peaceful?!”

“The planet, maybe, but the Galra? Definitely not!” Lance yelped as the Lion shook again, having taken another direct hit from a ship.

“According to these coordinates, the Yellow Lion is right there, where they’re mining.” Hunk pulled up the hologram to check again. “Guess they did know about the Yellow Lion, huh?”

“Hunk, we’re gonna be dropping you down there. I can’t stop to drop you off, or else we’ll both be sitting ducks.”

“Wait- me? Down there? Lance-“

“Hey! Big Man! Can you calm down?” Lance hissed, as the lion received fire. It was taking more and more willpower not to snap at the innocent boy. “Look, once you get down there, you’re gonna feel weird. And no, I promise it’s not your stomach. Just follow that follow that feeling and you’ll see your Lion.”

“So you DID feel something in that cave!” Hunk said smugly. “Pidge was right huh?”

“I swear if you tell that gremlin anything I will personally make sure you get motion-sick.” Lance growled. Hunk laughed, knowing by now that Lance meant nothing by his words. Probably. Still not too sure about what he said about Keith though. “I’ll cover you as best I can, just- hurry up!”

“Lance, I’m still not too sure about this-“

“You’ll be fine, Hunk. Just trust your lion okay?” Lance glanced back at him with a look that seemed almost reluctantly reassuring. Hunk gulped and nodded as an affirmative that he was ready

Lance hit a few buttons on instinct and a trap door opened beneath his passenger and he was sent rolling out the Lion’s mouth.

“Let’s just hope he won’t have to fight anyone in there.” Lance muttered. The lion roared again, bringing his attention back to the battle. “Okay, let’s buy him some time.”  
~

“No, no, nonononono…” Lance chanted as he gripped the controls tighter as if it would change anything. (He felt strongly tempted to hit the dashboard, but only the reminder that the ship was sentient stopped him). “Blue, come on. Please wake up!” He glanced up, at the incoming fighter planes. He could practically taste his anxiety as it crawled up his spine. He shouldn’t have come here. He shouldn’t have agreed to fly the lion into an active warzone. He should have demanded to be sent home. He shouldn’t have listened to Kogane. He shouldn’t have stepped outside his dorm last night. He shouldn’t have even woken up. 

Resolute in his fate, Lance shut his eyes, preparing for the worst, only to miss a yellow mechanical lion burst from the ground and save his sorry ass. 

Lance nearly cried in relief.

“You okay, Lance?” Hunk’s voice came. Lance chuckled with hysteria.

“Me? Why are you worried about _me_? You were literally caved in!” Lance asked, only for Hunk’s face to appear onscreen.

“Nah man, the yellow lion was there the whole time! I’m glad you’re okay, I was a little worried for you down there!” Hunk smiled at the screen before the window disappeared. Lance froze. There had been no time to check Hunk’s face for any insincerity, but the other teen had sounded sincere enough. They’d only known each other for maybe four hours tops. Hunk must truly be someone special: to care about someone like him. 

~

After Allura had opened the wormhole it had mostly been smooth sailing from there unless you count the dozen of TIE-Fighter wannabes that had them dodging at every second. Lance had received the most substantial damage, so Hunk had been covering for him almost the whole time. Lance stewed in the misery of his uselessness on the walk to the common room before Hunk had again asked if he was okay. 

“I’m fine dude.” Lance said curtly. “Besides, I-“

“You don’t seem fine.” Hunk interrupted soothingly. “It’s okay if you were scared. I mean, I was definitely scared.” He paused for a moment, considering his words carefully. “I’m sure even _Keith_ gets scared sometimes.”

Lance flinched at the sound of Keith’s name but said nothing as they continued. Pidge and Shiro had returned, so that means that their mission had also been a success too.

“How was it?” Keith spoke up from his place next to Coran. Lance shrugged while Hunk groaned. 

“The place was practically crawling with Galra! I thought these planets had friendly lifeforms.” Hunk complained. Coran furrowed his brow.

“They were! The Rulkins were a peaceful race. Hardly ever engaged in war, and-“

“Coran.” Allura interrupted him. “It’s been 10,000 years.” She returned to the hologram of a Galran ship and let the sentence hang heavy in the air. Her voice seemed to bear the weight of someone past her age. Lance looked down at his shoes, feeling sorry for the princess who had been pulled out of time.

“Well, I seem to have found the Red Lion.” She intoned diplomatically, pushing away her sad thoughts and feelings for another time. But not quite now. “Unfortunately it appears to be on a Galran battlecruiser orbiting Arus.” 

“We’re Arus.” Coran said after a moment of dramatic silence. “My calculations were incorrect. I apologize.” Allura touched his shoulder sympathetically. Then the holograms began to shift

“Princess Allura, this is commander Sendak of the Galran Empire.”

“He looks like a fucking chinchilla.” Lance muttered, altogether too tired to deal with the intergalactic war. Hunk heard him unfortunately and had to cover his mouth to discreetly stifle his laughter. Keith had also heard him and didn’t bother to disguise the snort that came out of his mouth. Shiro gave him a questioning look, as did the Galran on screen, but he continued his monologue. 

“I come here on behalf of Zarkon, Lord of the known universe. I am here to confiscate your lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.” And the message cut off. Lance wrinkled his nose at the wording. _Confiscate? Like what Mama did with Luis’s fidget spinner?_

“All right, let’s not panic.” Shiro said after a moment. Lance narrowed his eyes at the man. _Not panic?_

“Not panic?” Hunk asked. “The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us. We only have four Lions.” He deadpanned.

“Three lions.” Pidge reminded him. 

“That's right. Thank you, Pidge. Three working Lions an-and a Castle that's, like, 10,000 years old! We should leave!” Hunk exclaimed. Lance nodded.

“Solid arguments.” He muttered, catching Keith’s look of annoyance and what was most likely confusion. 

“Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway. Staying is our only option.” Keith said resolutely. Lance silently sucked in a breath.

“Also a solid argument.” He muttered again. For a split second, Keith’s face seemed to light up, but Lance firmly ignored the urge to look in his direction and focused on Shiro… 

Who seemed like he was getting ready to yell. Yes, he was definitely going to yell... He’d seen Veronica make that face whenever he and Rachel were screeching too loudly. And sure enough…

“Guys, stop! Princess Allura, these are your Lions. You've dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we're facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?" Shiro asked almost desperately.

"I... I-I don't know." The princess stammered, seemingly even more unsure than she had been before the shouting match.

“Perhaps your father can help.” Coran said softly, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“My father?” Allura asked, clearly confused as Coran lead her out of the room. Lance watched her leave with a sense of concern before the doors slid shut, blocking her from their view. Lance stayed there for a few moments before he felt a hand clap down on his left shoulder.

“Man, Lance! I didn’t know you had a sense of humor!” Hunk said, breaking the ice as everyone glanced in their direction.

“Hm?”

“You called Sendak a chinchilla.” Keith reminded with a soft smile on his face. Lance made a soft huffing sound, and watched Pidge squawk out a laugh while Shiro let out a confused “What?!” in the background. Lance felt his face warm up as most of the room expressed either surprise or amusement at his quip. 

He glanced over at Keith who was smirking at Shiro’s expression. He looked like he was having trouble deciding between shock and amusement himself. Lance let himself smile the smallest bit, as he began to feel a little happier with his team.

(He didn’t catch Pidge elbowing Keith with a knowing smirk. Something about “So, you’re already laughing at his jokes huh?” “You laughed too!”)


End file.
